Archive for September, 2012

How does a sperm swim? While microscopes have captured the images of plenty of sperm before, it’s tough to track the motion of these wriggling cells in three dimensions. So scientists devised a new imaging method. They hit a sample of about 1,500 sperm with two different colored light sources oriented at a 45-degree angle. The different colors cast different shadows when they hit the cells, which allowed the researchers to reconstruct each sperm’s motion.

Scientists have been hankering after that in vitro burger for at least five years, and what they have is a tardy order for a patty expected to cost over $300,000. Now, biotech company Modern Meadows is focusing on another lab-grown cow product: leather. Tanned hide should be technologically simpler to manufacture in the lab than medium-rare muscle, the company hopes, as well as more appealing to consumers. Read More

It’s Not Just Lunch: Extra-Pair Commensality Can Trigger Sexual Jealousy.

“Do people believe that sharing food might involve sharing more than just food? To investigate this, participants were asked to rate how jealous they (Study 1) – or their best friend (Study 2) – would be if their current romantic partner were contacted by an ex-romantic partner and subsequently engaged in an array of food- and drink-based activities. Read More

Trans-anal barotrauma by compressed air leading to sigmoid perforation due to a dangerous practical joke.

“To present a case report of trans-anal barotrauma by high-pressure compressed air jet as a dangerous practical joke, that is, playful insufflation of high-pressure air jet through the anal orifice resulting in sigmoid perforation. Read More

Feelings of Disgust and Disgust-Induced Avoidance Weaken following Induced Sexual Arousal in Women

“Sex and disgust are basic, evolutionary relevant functions that are often construed as paradoxical. In general the stimuli involved in sexual encounters are, at least out of context strongly perceived to hold high disgust qualities. Saliva, sweat, semen and body odours are among the strongest disgust elicitors. This results in the intriguing question of how people succeed in having pleasurable sex at all. One possible explanation could be that sexual engagement temporarily reduces the disgust eliciting properties of particular stimuli or that sexual engagement might weaken the hesitation to actually approach these stimuli.

Methodology
Participants were healthy women (n = 90) randomly allocated to one of three groups: the sexual arousal, the non-sexual positive arousal, or the neutral control group. Film clips were used to elicit the relevant mood state. Participants engaged in 16 behavioural tasks, involving sex related (e.g., lubricate the vibrator) and non-sex related (e.g., take a sip of juice with a large insect in the cup) stimuli, to measure the impact of sexual arousal on feelings of disgust and actual avoidance behaviour.Read More

Every cloud has a silver lining: positive effects of deviant coworkers.

“Drawing on the labeling perspective of deviance, we investigate employee reactions to coworkers perceived as deviants. We look at two positive effects for employees in the presence of a deviant coworker. First, in comparison to a deviant individual, other employees can draw more positive conclusions about themselves; and second, a deviant can be informative about organizational norms, thereby improving employee role clarity. Read More

“For millennia, flowers have been used to convey romance. In this study, 18-25-year-old women (N = 600) walking alone in a shopping mall were approached by an attractive 20-year-old male-confederate who solicited them for their phone number. Read More

The slug mucosal irritation (SMI) assay: development of a screening tool for the evaluation of ocular discomfort caused by shampoos.

“In this research, the slug mucosal irritation (SMI) assay was applied to predict ocular discomfort caused by shampoos to investigate the correlation between responses in slugs and humans. Several SMI experiments and a human eye irritation test (HEIT) were performed with 1 artificial tear solution (ArtTear) and 5 shampoos (A-E; 5%-dilution). In the HEIT, evaluation was performed by participants and an ophthalmologist at several time points. Read More

The Gifts We Keep on Giving: Documenting and Destigmatizing the Regifting Taboo.

“Five studies examined whether the practice of regifting-a social taboo-is as offensive to the original givers as potential regifters assume. Participants who imagined regifting a gift (receivers) thought that the original giver would be more offended than participants who imagined that their gifts were regifted (givers) reported feeling. Read More